Category: Niagara

For my Ontario Chardonnay Review, Cave Spring Vineyard sent me four bottles of their various Chardonnay wines.  In my previous article I reviewed two of the wines and I am now reviewing the remaining two wines.  This winery is one of the pioneers in the area, having been around for four decades.  They are certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario and…

My next set of Ontario Chardonnay wines to review comes from Cave Spring Vineyard.  This winery is one of the pioneers in the area, having been around for four decades.  They are certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario and their wines are also vegan-friendly.  The two wines I received to review are Cave Spring Vineyard Chardonnay 2024 (coming from a selection…

My next wine for my Ontario Chardonnay Review comes from Tawse Winery, located in the Twenty Mile Bench area of the Niagara Peninsula.  I received their Tawse Quarry Road Vineyard Chardonnay 2023 for the review.  They farm organically, although I didn’t notice an organic symbol on the wine label.  This vineyard has been certified organic since 2008.  Here are my…

Today starts my unveiling of Ontario Chardonnay; a terroir-driven exploration of elegance and expression.  Chardonnay has long been a cornerstone of Ontario’s viticultural identity, offering a compelling canvas for terroir to shine.  Ontario’s cool-climate Chardonnay reveals a spectrum of styles, from taut and mineral-driven to richly textured and barrel-aged.  Here is an unoaked and an unoaked Chardonnay from two different wineries:  Featherstone Estate Winery Unoaked…

It is always a treat at a winemaker’s dinner to be able to talk with the winemaker who gives us some insight into how the wines we are drinking together were made and any challenges they encountered.  I recently attended a winemaker dinner at Provence Marinaside, featuring Jessica Otting from the Niagara region’s Tawse Winery, who gave us those insights. …

Every year in the deep, darkness and pouring rain of winter in Vancouver, we have Dine Out Vancouver, to try to get us out and excited about food, wine, and hopefully life.  I booked a dine out experience at Provence Marinaside.  A top notch restaurant in Vancouver, serving excellent French cuisine.  Here are a few pictures of what I enjoyed…

We have had some turmoil in Canada and in BC for wines in 2025.  Many BC interior wineries suffered from the 2024 cold snap causing them to either not produce any wine in 2024, or importing grapes from across the border, or from Ontario.  We also had the removal of USA wines from BC government liquor stores.  Overall, we had…

We do not get many wines from Ontario in BC, but here is a new entry.  Henry of Pelham, located in the Niagara peninsula has been producing wine since 1984.  I have two wines for you today: Henry of Pelham Classic Pinot Grigio 2024 and Henry of Pelham Classic Baco Noir 2023.  Baco Noir may be unfamiliar to some of…

This is my eighth year interviewing winemakers or winery principals in Ontario about their latest grape harvest and wine production.  Now that it is late November and the wines are all in tanks or barrels, how did the Ontario grape growing season and harvest fare?  I interviewed three winemakers/winery principals this year: Ryan Oldridge, Winemaker at Colchester Ridge Estate Winery in…

Cabernet Franc has found a remarkable home in the diverse terroirs of Ontario, producing wines that are both vibrant and distinctive. Over the past several months I’ve tasted through 28 different bottles of Cabernet Franc, primarily from the Niagara peninsula, but also two bottles from Prince Edward County.  I wanted to examine how the unique climate and soil composition of the Niagara Peninsula,…